We went in to the main bar area, where there are leather sofas, a pool table, and a large bar. I think it's been recently refurbished, and it was spacious and airy. There's a restaurant area to the left, but we went out into the walled garden, to one of the large new wooden tables there. We settled the kids in, and went to the bar, where the friendly chap behind the bar served us drinks for the mob, a pint of Prince Of Wales Wallop and another who's name I forget, as well as giving us a menu. They also had all the Sunday papers on sale, so we picked one up to read while we waited.

We looked through the menu outside - quite a lot on it, mostly of the standard pub group variety - up to and including pizzas, burgers, sandwiches, ham egg & chips etc. The kids menu was the usual fodder - but claimed to be better than average.

I had my usual ham ploughmans - which was generous on the salad, the little pickled onions look nice but big juicy ones are better, and the ham was a little stingy and a bit bland. Hubby's Big Burger with Stilton and Curly Fries was much better, and the kid's chicken nuggets, same fries, and beans went down well - I think real chicken may have been involved at some point! The fries, coated somehow, were pretty tasty too.

The highlight of the meal was the desserts. I had pineapple sorbet in its pineapple bowl. Youngest had a black-cherry pancake stack with custard, eldest had an individual Raspberry Pavlova, and hubby had a very nice Mississippi Mud Pie.

I wouldn't go so far as to say the food was outstanding, but it was pretty good. The nicest thing about the place however was the atmosphere. A lot of the people there were clearly local and all knew each other. There was a party of some sort going on, but at no point did this intrude, or slow down service. In fact service throughout was very efficient. Sitting out in the fairly sunny garden reading the papers with all this going on around you felt a bit like being at a family gathering. Very welcoming.

The total bill came to £50.40 to £35.90 of that being for the food, which was good value for money, and if we were in the area again I wouldn't hesitate to go back.